In brief:

I'm a redheaded mama with four lovely daughters. We're based in southern Australia and travel in a small, colourful housebus — meeting inspiring people, learning lots and re-thinking everything. I feel passionately about spirituality, good design, alternative education, discussing death and conscious parenting.

Back at the snow

There hadn't been any snowfalls between our first and second trips up into the mountain, so patches of dirt were showing through some lower places.

We drove up and up, arriving at little township called Cabramurra whose claim to fame is that it is the highest town in Australia (1448 metres).

Cabramurra was an eerie town to visit. It is wholly owned by the Snowy Hydro Scheme’s managing corporation, without any private residences (or places for overnight accommodation). The town was architecturally designed, and all the houses, public buildings, and even the picnic shelters looked identical, with drastically sloping roofs rising to peaks in the same direction. Because of the similarity of the buildings, I felt that it could have been something out of a horror movie.

With no overnight visitors, no rooms for rent, no privately-owned buildings, no backpackers or holiday-makers, locals thought that we belonged with them. When we drove around, everyone would wave, and we successfully ordered dinner at the (very nice) staff canteen.

It was wonderful to wake up to the white brightness of the thick snowcover. We spent the night in a parking lot, sleeping incognito just as David had always wanted to do! In the morning we took the boogie boards and toboggan out for a bit of snow play.

David was showing the girls the town in the morning through the top hatches of the truck. B pulled her head in long enough for me to catch her grin.

The Freedom Truck in Cabramurra.

I really wanted to make a traditional snowman, but the snow wouldn't pack together nicely.

My and Aïcha's footprints in the fresh snow.

Down he goes!

I have really enjoyed seeing the snow again.

That afternoon, David and I discovered another really frozen lake. When we first ventured out onto Three-Mile-Dam (not sure why it was named such), we were very cautious, sliding out onto the ice with our bellies on our boogie boards. However, by the end of the afternoon, we were walking on the ice in preferences to trudging through the knee-deep snow! Our fastest boogie-board rides were down the steep snowy banks and out onto the ice.

I love this man. (The look on his face says that he's planning on doing something mischievous and fun.)

Any prohibitive signs are a challenge to David.

Sliding across the ice after a fast run-up.

We farewelled the snow and headed for Canberra, where we have been staying with our good friends the Aldrics.